Duffer’s Dabbles: Third Line Struggling For Red Wings

There are a number of issues that can be pointed to for the latest woes of the Detroit Red Wings. Certainly, an NHL-worst power-play unit isn’t helping. The club continues to find it difficult to prevent easy scoring chances against.

Another are of concern is secondary scoring. Detroit’s top two units are delivering fairly consistent offensive contributions. The same can’t be said of the bottom-six forwards, especially the third line of Michael Rasmussen between Adam Erne and Filip Zadina.

Red Wings Third Line Struggling To Find Net

Zadina and Rasmussen each has accounted for one goal over the past 13 games they’ve played. Erne was a revelation last season when he scored a team-leading 11 goals. It earned him a new contract with the club. This season, though, he’s gone back to his inability to find the net. Erne shows one goal over his past 23 games.

“They’re just not playing good enough as individuals,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “They gotta play better as individuals.

A puck from Dad. #LGRW @Adamerne73 pic.twitter.com/LMdvZ82dLF

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) January 2, 2022

“I think if they play to the level they’re capable of, I think they grind teams and they can do those things. But they’re making mistakes defensively and they just haven’t played well enough. Some of that is it’s only Earns’ second or third day back (from COVID-19 protocol), so he’s gotta get his feet back under him a little bit.

“I think the key to us as a hockey team is everybody playing their best hockey.”

Rumor Of The Day

Will there be another fire sale in Buffalo at the NHL trade deadline? Over the past year, the Sabres have moved out forwards Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel and defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.

However, there’s still plenty of candidates to interest NHL teams who are wearing Sabres colors. Defensemen Colin Miller and Mark Pysyk and forwards Victor Olofsson and Cody Eakin all could provide depth pieces to a playoff team.

Around The NHL

Detroit: The Red Wings are planning to give rookie forward Joe Veleno a chance to see if he can help ignite their moribund power play.

Calgary: Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov is the latest player to rip the decision of keeping NHL players out of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games.

Vancouver: There’s buzz about Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko and the Vezina Trophy. He thinks it’s all a bunch of silly talk.

San Jose: The latest twist in the saga of Sharks forward Evander Kane is that he’s been hit hard with a case of COVID-19. You might remember Kane earning an NHL suspension for submitting a fake vaccination card.